No “Death With Dignity” for MS Patients

I am not a morbid person – a black sense of humor; that I’ll cop to – but a recent batch of comments on a previous post on the subject brought the topic back to my mind. I’ve been meaning to post something of a follow-up ever since my state passed a “Death With Dignity” Act, back in 2008.

It was a hard-fought battle between the two sides with impassioned pleas from proponents and opponents alike. In the end, the measure passed overwhelmingly.

The thing is, the law was crafted with such tight restrictions as to make (some say “appropriately”) difficult to carry out. In fact, a reading of the 10 pages of legalese which is the law makes it quite clear that a person in the final throws of MS would not be eligible for the relief intended by the law.

A person, in Washington State, must be diagnosed with a terminal disease (other than life itself) and be deemed to be within six months of the “natural” end of their life. On first read, we may not think of MS as “terminal. ” The definition used in the law, however (““Terminal disease” means an incurable and irreversible disease that has been medically confirmed and will, within reasonable medical judgment, produce death within six months.”) leads me to believe that a person with MS may be covered by this law.

Then, I read on…

In order for a person to qualify for this final relief, he or she must be able to “self-administer” enough medication (by ingestion) to end their own life.

This is a very specific and important part to the law. If a person cannot, by their own power, open the container holding the medication, transfer it to their mouth without spilling so much as to make the dose ineffective, then swallow the meds; if they cannot do this without assistance, they are not “self-administering.”

The very fact that a person with MS would be medically deemed to be within 6 months of a natural death leads me to assume that many of the functions required above would have been long gone. The list of symptoms that would prevent the lawful taking of one’s own life are almost too many to list.

I bring this point up, not because I am in any way considering this as an imminent decision for me and my family. I want to make mention of it because it’s just not right. If society wants to appear compassionate but want to keep its hands clean of “assisted suicide” then, I wonder if it knows how far this law does not go to help the very people it thought it was helping.

Not many states have Death With Dignity laws on the books. More will likely follow, but if your state, like mine, decides to base their law closely upon another (ours was modeled on Oregon’s) than you might want to read the fine print before you support the effort.

It’s a dark topic, but I’m willing to open it up for another discussion…

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Trevis Gleason

Trevis L. Gleason is a food journalist and published author, an award-winning chef and culinary instructor who has taught at institutions such as Cornell University, New England Culinary Institute and...read more